rolling. rolling.

Overall I really enjoyed reading Wired Mag for iPad today. I haven’t read Wired all the way through in years. This new app is beautifully designed and more elegant to use than I expected. But it’s not perfect at all. Here are my beefs:

• You can’t select text. The articles might as well be JPG images. Accordingly, text isn’t as sharp as it could be. Also, I’m not used to seeing overly kerned type on a digital screen. Icky.

• Articles should have a share button with links to their web counterparts. Right now it’s still more social to use the website if you want to drive people to Wired.

• They should use an in-app web view to display out-of-mag content, like advertiser sites and related links. See Twitterific for iPad for best implementation. Fixed in V2.

• Staff box and author names on articles should be links to a mail view for instant feedback.

• It’s not evident which articles or ads get the vertical scroll treatment. You have to test each page to make sure you’re not missing anything.

• I’d like to know if my ad clicks and video views are being tracked. The long EULA says Wired tracks usage, but when? What should I avoid?

• Audio is page specific. If you swipe to a new page, it stops. The NPR app handles audio better.

• No page numbers makes articles hard to reference. Shouldn’t we still be able to cite articles in this realm?

• What’s the point of having a fill-in-the-blank puzzle if you can’t type in the answer?

• Would like an option to make all photos full screen. There’s great photography and digital art in here that deserves more pixels. Conversely, I wish videos played inline instead of full screen. Fixed in V2

• There are a few internal links between stories, but there is no “back” button, a browser convention for hypertext.

Looking forward to next month’s issue.

(There are typos but these are notes)

How the weak win wars
The shining as buddy movie
Punchline is unexpected but logical in hindsight.
Flip everything upside down to see how it works.
Kill the violence, stop the gun ad
Socks are sold in pairs that match
Monocle magazine
Quit now bonus at zappos
El bulli
Eddie izzard.
Phillip kerman’s view of the iPad: apple boxed themselves into a corner, presumably by not supporting flash. I disagree.
YQL query language.
Stolenbikeregistry.com
Velosynth.com
Dutch transport bike
Cyclocros
Shift
Edot
Pedal brain
Ruby track
Training peaks
Garmin 705
Stephan segmeister
Marian bartjes
Daily monster Stephan bucher
Just sit.
Tretcha?
Super7 in Seattle
Lego digital designer.
Tilo telo DESIGN INSPIRATION
ISSUES of today
Plastic in Pacific
Fish supply
Childhood obesity
Clean water
For the next
Kumbayah m’lord.
—————————————————-
Over-shoulder browser spy:
Public marketspace
Northwest trail alliance
—————————————————-
Smashing ideas Seattle
Coppa guidelines fir kids
No Low below the fold content
Collectables, rewards, appointment gaming
Promo navigation over standard
User testing: ask them to show you how to do something.
Voice overs hints rewards payoffs.
Local shared object vs login
Pokewalker online -> offline
Boyscout badge style offline rewards
Webkins with codes to enter online.
Truly interactive toys football with distAnce tracker
Data.gov getting good
NASA and 2 others out ahead
This open shit is starting to work
Uxcrank slideshare

mnmal:

I have just three things to teach;
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.

— Tao Te Ching